Cast Off Your Fears Because God is For You!

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

People can experience tough times at any time and for a diversity of reasons. When times get tough, especially in the area of finances, people often get this feeling like they’re floundering or grasping at straws, just trying to do what it takes to survive. I’ve been to that place. I know what it feels like. I was there early on in our marriage when we started having children. Renee and I prayerfully made the decision for her to quit her job to stay home with our kids. She was making more than I was, which meant we lost over half our income. I was convinced that I would do what it took to survive. I wasn’t afraid of hard work. I was also convinced that God was with us and would lead us in the way. It seemed like the right decision when we made it and we really felt we were prayerfully following the direction God was giving us. But, it didn’t take long before our personal economy was suffering and had gotten scary.

We, like anyone that makes a decision in faith to trust God, experienced the temptation to doubt the choice we had made. We had those moments of doubt crying out God you are helping us through this aren’t you? Thankfully those fearful moments were short-lived! They were because we stayed in God’s word and prayed. As we did, we’d sense His encouragement speaking to our hearts through His Word. That is where you have to hear from God and get encouragement. It’s obviously not in Satan’s nature to encourage Christians who are walking by faith trusting God. Satan is skilled at painting pictures in our head of doom, gloom and disaster.

In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain had murdered his brother. He tried to avoid the truth regarding it in a discussion with God, and showed no remorse other than for his own personal condition. Cain had brought terrible consequences upon himself. God told him that he would become a vagabond—a wanderer for the rest of his life. That wasn’t God’s doing. It was Cain’s. He was stubborn, jealous, rebellious, and unrepentant. These very attitudes are cursed and evidence of a mind whose thinking has become distorted and far from any good or godly wisdom. When someone is like this, they will wander through life as a vagabond.

You are not a vagabond, nor are you a wanderer. You may be struggling somewhat to survive but you are not an aimless wanderer never getting anywhere. No, when you received Jesus, God made a promise to you. He said, “Christ has redeemed and rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When Jesus was hung on the cross, He took upon himself the sins and consequences of our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13 (NLT) Jesus is the one who hung upon a tree (the cross) for you, exchanging your sins for adoption into His family and the promised blessings of Abraham reaching all the way into your life today! Learning God’s Word and trusting in obedience to walk in it, creates a strong and stable mind and great faith. Grace and miracles happen in our lives through faith.

In tough times these thoughts need to anchor you. You are not cursed. You are blessed! God has not abandoned you. Hebrews 13:5 NI instructs our thinking saying, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” The Lord is not saying you shouldn’t work to improve your situation. He is simply telling you not allow the feeling of floundering or grasping for straws. Don’t be indecisive and don’t be tempted to violate your integrity. Reject panic and instead lift your heart in faith to the one that cares for you and will never forsake you. You don’t need to because He is with you! He is in you! And He will lead you!

You are blessed! Seek God and He will lead you. Shake off desperation. Seek God for guidance and for the steps you should take. GET FOCUSED! Be diligent to seek Him and work toward your future. You have a blessed one ahead of you! Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NIV) says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”

He’ll lead you step-by-step to your land of promise. As you trust in Him at every moment and step, you’ll see His touch, His mercy and grace, and His divine help supply your needs.

Renee and I now have the benefit of 40 years of hindsight. looking back at all the ways the Lord was there to help us! Distrust and fear would have made us wanderers! Instead, we believed we were His and we were blessed! Now our heart aches for everyone to experience this divine life that comes from trusting Him by faith. It is the life He wants us to live! It is His way of getting us to where He wants us to go!

Psalm 9:10 (NIV) “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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